Transgenderism and Celebrity Status

By Siobhan Donegan

As the heteronormative gender binary has begun to be questioned within the current cultural ideology and as Trans-feminists/Transgender individuals question gender anyway; we can ask the question, has the existence of Transgender celebrities made Transgenderism more acceptable? The answer is that in all probability it has, albeit slowly. According to Michael Lovelock, of the University of East Anglia, Trans-representation/Trans-visibility has achieved ‘recognisability’ through Celebrity culture. In fact the psychological subjectivity of the self-revelatory narratives of Transgender celebrities  not only means that these individuals have achieved ‘intensified visibility’, but also that Transgenderism/ Trans-Identity have become ‘legible’ and Trans-ness has become ‘emblematised’ through Trans celebrities and popular culture. Furthermore, Transgender individuals have always been at the frontline of the Gay Rights movement, and Trans-Celebrities have acted and used their social status as ‘guiding lights’ to young people with gender variant identities or different orientations. When we look at some biographical sketches we realise that Transgender Celebrities can be Actors, Musicians, Models, Artists and ‘Influencers’.

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Perhaps the first recognisably ‘Transgender Celebrity’ was Christine Jorgensen who underwent gender reassignment surgery in the 1950’s in Denmark, and was apparently ‘the first known person’ to undergo this surgical procedure as she obviously identified as a woman during the years after her service in World War 2. She returned to America after her operation and her Trans-celebrity status is no doubt partly due to her uniqueness at the time. As well as working as an Actress and performer, and because of her historic transition, became an inspirational advocate and spokesperson for Transgender people. Jorgensen has in fact remained an influential figure ‘even decades after her death’.
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Billy Tipton has gone down in Jazz history as a highly talented-accomplished musician of this genre. However, even more interesting than this is the fact that it wasn’t until after his death that it was discovered that he had in fact been born Female, thus he is the second person in this discussion that we can class as a Transgender celebrity. In the early 1930’s he had changed his ‘Gender presentation’ so that he would blend in with ‘the Jazz Band image’. He was a Bandleader, a pianist, had several successful albums and toured his country.
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The next brief biographical sketch here is of Wendy Carlos, who is one of the lesser well known Transgender Celebrities or ‘minor celebrity’. She is known in the Music Industry as an innovative Synthesizer pioneer, as she helped to develop the Moog instrument in the late 1960’s. Her debut album is considered a ‘landmark album’ this was ‘Switched on Bach’. This ‘out of nowhere’ musical style insured that it became a best seller and ‘multiple Grammy winning hit’. She is also and perhaps best known for her musical collaborations with Stanley Kubrick on ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘The Shining’. She subsequently became a Trans-Pioneer in the music world.

Caroline Cossey, Transgender Model mentioned in my previous article, despite the fact that she was ‘severely upset’ after being outed by the British Tabloids, achieved Trans-Celebrity status. Also, she continued as an activist for Trans-Rights in the UK with her activism ‘reaching all the way to the European Court of Human Rights’.

Laverne Cox is one of the most famous Transgender Celebrities in the USA at the moment, as she achieved stardom in her role in the Netflix Prison drama series ‘Orange is the New Black’. She told The Guardian that as a child in Alabama she was subjected to cruel homophobic bullying and in fact attempted suicide at just the age of 11. However, it was her passion for the Performance Arts-Acting and dancing that gave her the focus and strength to strive for accomplishment. Laverne said: “We are in a place now where more and more Trans people want to come forward and say ‘This is who I am’ “

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In all probability the most famous Transgender Celebrity, at the moment is Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn born Bruce Jenner and whose gender transition is probably the subject of the widest mass media discussion, like most Trans-people hasn’t had an easy journey. Jenner, in fact had felt conflicted from an early age, as she had struggled with gender dysphoria, this is a recognised medical condition caused by the conflict between the gender a person identifies with and the person’s assigned gender. Jenner, turned to sports in order to become stronger and is in fact an Olympic Gold medal winning Athlete. Caitlyn of course was famously featured on the cover of Vanity Fair and the story behind this is interesting in itself. When Buzz Bissenger, journalist for Vanity Fair was assigned to interview Caitlyn Jenner-Jenner had already undergone surgery to have her Adam’s apple removed.

Bissinger had in fact been assigned to chronicle the extraordinary story of Jenner’s transition. Part of this transition had been 12 hours of plastic surgery, which I presume was facial feminisation surgery, as Bissenger afterwards in describing the transformation said: “It was wild”. Caitlyn was subsequently photographed by Celebrity Portrait Photographer Annie Leibovitz, the result being the now iconic shot on the July issue of Vanity Fair, Caitlyn was ‘corseted’, glamorous-sophisticated and sexy. Her transition was also documented at the time on a Reality Show. It could be argued that considering just how famous this transition was, this would seem to have been the critical moment or point of mainstream collective acceptance of the gender variant existence Transgenderism.

Transgender Celebrities haven’t only crossed the boundary of the gender binary, but have also broken barriers across various mediums, and whilst doing my research for this article I came across a number of ‘firsts’; the following are a number of interesting examples. Isis King was in fact the first Transgender Woman to appear/compete on ‘America’s Next Top Model’. She told ‘Page Six’ that: “I feel like our voices are just now starting to be heard”. The stunning Valentina Sampaio became the first ever Transgender Model to be featured in ‘Sports Illustrated’ swimsuit issue. Also, in 2019 she made history becoming ‘Victoria’s Secret’ first openly Transgender Model. This is all the more remarkable considering the fact that as Sampaio pointed out her native country Brazil: “Hosts the highest number of violent crimes and murders against the Trans-community in the World-three times that of the U.S”.

Miriam Rivera tragically died at the age of only 38 in 2019-and will be remembered as the first openly Trans-woman to appear on a Reality TV Show. She has become famous as a cast member of the dating Show ‘There’s Something About Miriam’-2004. She had been a member of the ‘Ballroom’ scene in New York, and was part of the House of Xtravaganza. Candis Cayne was the first Trans-woman to play a Transgender character on TV in the 2007 ABC Drama ‘Dirty Sexy Money’. Finally, Janet Mock was the first Trans-woman of colour to work as a writer for a TV series, this being Ryan Murphy’s hit series ‘Pose’. It should also be mentioned that the list doesn’t end there as there are many other examples that I could cite.

I would like to finish this article by saying that with the emergence of Transgender Celebrities into the public domain amongst multi-media platforms, and more importantly the acceptability of this within the heteronormative collective Cisgender community, we of course have a victory for Trans-visibility.